Hamline University Students for Transparency, Leadership and Engagement (HUSTLE)
This petition expresses a firmly-held belief of the Hamline student body that the University is not currently able to construct a University Center. Recently students and faculty have raised serious concerns about the university's ability to responsibly carry out this project as currently proposed. Our concerns have been given new depth by the recent revelations listed below.
The current plan for the University Center is contingent on future alumni donation. However, the students who've signed this pledge refuse to be complicit in this fund-raising endeavor. As a result, we will refrain from alumni giving until a more fiscally-responsible plan is put forth that will restore confidence in the university administration.
As students, we don't have access to all of the information relating to this decision. This current transparency deficit is disturbing enough. More disturbing to us are the problems that have been revealed within the small amount of information released to the student body.

Grievances:

University administration lied to staff, faculty, and students about the true cost of the University Center relative to other college’s similar projects. The projected cost of $235/square foot has been demonstrated to be a manipulation of facts and a gross overspending relative to other university’s student centers.

Hamline administration did not pursue competitive bids for the University Center and, as an extension, did not actively seek a fair price for constructing it. Hamline's gross overpayment for construction leads us to believe the third party evaluator is not honestly and fairly assessing McGough Construction, owned by Life Trustee Thomas McGough Sr.
University administration changed the original plan of waiting until 75% of the University Center cost was secured in stable assets without a consensus from the Hamline community, plunging us into far more debt than previously estimated.

University administration has neglected the concerns of faculty, has systematically removed the student body from the decision making process, and has gone ahead with a plan considered by the majority of the Hamline community to be a mistake.
University administration has actively sought to create deficits in transparency within the Hamline community through no online student access to finance forum materials, no access to Board meeting minutes, no complete Balance sheet for current year, no complete budgetary projections, no Sources and Uses report for the University Center, and no document stating the university has not faced negative arbitrage
We the undersigned express a vote of no confidence in the current plan for the University Center and ask that the administration halt construction and engage in meaningful discussion with the entire Hamline community about how to proceed.

Links